Tara Fougner, Thirsty CEO & Founder, and Thirsty Community are recognized by Drinks International in their special International Women's Day feature for March 2025 Women's History Month Issue. Tara was honored as one of the "Faces of Progression" in the Bar Industry alongside powerful Women Advocates such as Ivy Mix (Speed Rack), Amanda Gunderson (Another Round, Another Rally), Kaitlin Wilkes (The Ada Coleman Project), Chockie Tom (Native Americans in Drinks), Larissa Arojona (Women Leading Rum), Lorraine Copes (Be Inclusive Hospitality), Shirley Yeung (Mix Haus) and Queena Wong (Curious Vines).
Tara Fougner, US
Based in the US, while covering the global industry, Thirsty Community is an industry and community-led platform that shares news and highlights people in the industry. The platform has a focus on marginalized and underrepresented voices such as women, BIPOC, queer and more, helping anyone who “would benefit from DEI, which is rapidly getting dismantled and banned in the US”, says co-founder and chief executive of Thirsty Media, Tara Fougner. An advocate for the industry, Fougner is a proud Puerto Rican, using her platform to empower, encourage and amplify historically excluded voices in the industry.
Fougner has repeatedly featured in Bar World 100 and was honored on the inaugural Future 40 List (formerly 40 Under 40). In 2023, she was honored as a Tales Catalyst.
*** Excerpt from Drinks International ***
OPEN LETTER FROM TARA FOUGNER
This March, something feels different. And I am hoping that we can actually talk about it, even if it is uncomfortable, and resist the urge to avoid conversations in favor of comfort.
Women's History Month feels quieter, eerily quieter, and more fractured. It feels like we are being hushed and discouraged from talking about it, let alone proudly speak up as women in the industry.
I remember pausing in March 2024 and realizing the spaces were changing and conversations were being shortened. After a couple years of amplifying voices and empowering women, it begin to feel like simply posting a celebration or empowerment message was hyper-politicized as if there was some radical agenda.
I felt it in how social media statements were worded. In how trade budgets were suddenly “re-evaluated.” In how the same work women had been applauded for just a year earlier was now being labeled “non-essential” or "too political" to be recognized.
DEI budgets were cut. Advocacy language disappeared from decks. Community work was reframed as “nice to have” instead of a KPI or deliverable.
And no one seemed to want to say it out loud publicly, but I know I am not the only one who felt it. Now, one year later, I can't help but question ... are we quietly watching all our hard work gets erased.
Especially in the U.S., as trust is being universally eroded, the broader reality for women is being reverse in ways that are impossible to ignore. Now in 2025, women working full-time were still earning roughly 80–82 cents for every dollar earned by men, with the gap widening further for Black and Latina women, despite years of public commitments to equity. Nearly one in three women of reproductive age was living in a state with severe abortion restrictions or near-total bans, many of which overlapped with significantly higher maternal mortality rates, particularly for women of color. Federal civil rights enforcement mechanisms that once helped surface workplace discrimination had been weakened, while childcare costs continued to rise, pushing more women out of the workforce or into reduced hours under the weight of unpaid caregiving. All of this was unfolding while women were simultaneously being told, implicitly and explicitly, that advocating for equity, safety, and access had become “too political,” as if the erosion of rights, health outcomes, and economic stability were abstract debates rather than lived, daily consequences. The disconnect is jarring; women were being asked to absorb more risk, more labor, and more responsibility, while being given less protection, less funding, and less permission to speak plainly about what was happening.
Now back to the erosion of trust, because it's happening. Not just in institutions, but between people. Between operators, bartenders and brands. Between media and audiences. Between leadership and labor. The industry isn't collapsing in one dramatic moment or because of one cause; it feels like trust is fracturing rapidly. Quietly. Systemically.
And when things start to fray, the pressure always lands unevenly .... especially on women. Are women in hospitality being hushed, passed over, to stop leading if we are too loud for the comfort of others?
Are we being asked to tone it down?
To be less political. To avoid “charged” topics. To focus on the niceties of the business, as if business had ever been neutral. To keep rooms calm, even as the foundation cracked beneath us.
In previous years, advocacy for women has been welcomed and even rewarded. It was trendy, fundable, performative at times, but visible. By March 2024, the posture had shifted. The same values were now considered liabilities. The same women who had built trust were suddenly treated as risks.
And here’s the part I want to say full chest, because euphemisms don’t help anyone anymore.
Women empowerment feels like it is being replaced with silence.
Silence dressed up as pragmatism. Silence framed as professionalism. Silence sold as stability. Silence encouraged to protect comfort.
But silence is not neutral. Silence always sides with power.
So this Women's History Month, I urge all Women and allies to keep speaking anyway. To keep naming things anyway. To keep taking up space when it was clear the room was shrinking. It felt heavier than in years past, not because the work mattered less, but because the cost was suddenly clearer.
Going quiet has never been a real option for me. And I know this is true for so many extraordinary women in this industry.
Women in hospitality don’t just reflect the industry, we regulate it. We absorb shock. We read the room before it breaks. We hold conflict, grief, joy, and labor together in spaces that most people pass through without noticing.
When trust erodes, that labor increases, even if it’s no longer funded, recognized, or protected.
So this is my letter to you this Women's History Month. Keep going, it is harder and you may feel more exposed and unsupported; know you aren't imagining it.
If leadership feels lonelier, it isn't a personal failure.
If the ground felt less stable beneath you, it’s because it is
And still, I urge you to keep showing up because regardless of the headlines and rhetoric, we matter. Refusing to pretend that labor, safety, access, healthcare, immigration, equity, and dignity are optional concerns in an industry built on human bodies and care work.
Keep saying, this affects us and silence won’t protect us.
Women don’t hold power in hospitality because we’re louder.
We hold it because we stay when others disappear.
So if you’re tired, I see you. if you’re still here fighting, I respect you and stand with you.
And if you’re wondering whether speaking up is still worth it, it is. Women have always held the line and in 2025, this matters more than ever.
